Creative Chemistry, A Simon Says Challenge, and The 12 Tags of 2012

I completed my tags for the final technique at Creative Chemistry 101.  It is one of the easiest, and yet most lovely backgrounds I've seen.  In fact, I did two tags; one with the distress inks that Tim used in his example, and one using archival inks, just to see the difference.  Apart from the colors, not that great a difference.  I was just wondering about how the distress inks would react when remoistened, but it wasn't a significant amount.  I like it both ways.

The one on the left was done with distress inks; the one on the right with archival inks.

I liked this technique so much, I used it on my entry in this week's Simon Says challenge....which is to make something using Wendy Vecchi's products and or style.  I need a few thank you cards, so made multiples of this one:

The background stamp is the beautiful lace from Wendy's Sentimental Art set.  The large weeds are from her Well Worn Art set, and the smaller ones are from the Botanical Art set.  The background was done with distress stains and inks, but the weeds were stamped with archival ink, so they would remain intact after the last part of the technique was applied.  Sorry!  You'll have to take Tim's class to get all those details.  The sentiment is an old and much used Stampin' Up stamp.

Now that we're in a new month, Tim posted his April tag for the 12 Tags of 2012 ongoing project.  Click here to see what he did and all the step by step instructions.  And here is my interpretation.  I followed the technique as given, but used different die cuts.  I also don't (yet) own any of those cool word bands, so I made my own with a scrap of thin metal, some rub-ons, and archival inks to give the metal a softer patina finish.

I've been keeping busy with all this stuff to avoid what I really should be doing.....my taxes.  Yikes!  I just can't get in the mood for that!